Google Starts Fiber Installation in Shawnee

By Oliver VanDervoort

Contributing Writer

Google (News - Alert) might be taking it slow when it comes to expanding its Google Fiber reach, but there is definite movement. The company began everying in Kansas City, Missouri and announced that it would likely spread out from there a couple of years ago. Since that announcement, the expansion has been quite slow but now Shawnee, Kansas residents can see the first signs of Google Fiber installation.

The company has begun construction in Shawnee, just behind the facility known as Fire House No. 71. There the internet giant is building its first of two Fiber Huts that will allow it to spread the fiber throughout the city. The work moves a little bit slower here compared to a place like Provo, Utah.

In Provo, Google was able to purchase a firm that had already laid a dependable fiber network. By going that route, the company was able to save time and energy by simply improving where they needed in order to make the service go live. In Shawnee, the firm has to start from scratch.

This first Fiber Hut will play a rather large part in giving the town the ability to access the high-speed network. In the huts, thousands of glass fibers enter the hut and send and receive signals between the Internet and electronic devices. People like the city’s senior engineering technician call this the first step in a fairly long process of getting Google Fiber in Shawnee.

“Their network is completely different from anyone else's,” he said in a recent interview with The Dispatch. “In order for them to provide services throughout the city, they are going to have to run at least one strand of fiber to every home in the city that wants service.”

Shawnee has provided the land for the Fiber Huts free of charge, in exchange for Google bringing its high-speed network to the city. Once it is up and running, Google Fiber brings Internet speeds about 100 times faster than the average broadband service. The Internet giant tends to offer this super high-speed network cheaper than most other ISPs.